Guild Wars 2

Monks, with tomes. :>

Why wait to play it? Go make a ranger right now. :0

Traits:
Minor
Adept – Prayers of Virtue: Virtues become prayers. Life Attunement (F4) is gained.
Master – Strength of Honor: Every boon you have active on an ally increases their damage by 2% (does not affect user).
Grandmaster – Air of Enchantment: Boon duration is increased by 40% when applying boons to allies (not the user).

Major:
Adept
- Smiter’s Covenant: Might you apply is 33% stronger. Aura of Smiting’s cooldown is reduced by 20%.
- Healer’s Covenant: +10% outgoing healing to allies. Word of Healing’s cooldown is reduced by 20%.
- Protector’s Covenant: Protection you apply prevents an additional 10% damage. Mark of Protection’s cooldown is reduced by 20%.

Master
- Smiter’s Boon: Fury applied by you on other allies grants an extra 20% critical chance. Might and fury durations are increased by 25%. (existing Smiter’s Boon trait gets renamed)
- Healer’s Boon: Decreases the cooldown of any skills that heal others by 20% while Life Attunement is active. Gain +20% outgoing healing to allies whenever you use a heal skill (skill #6) or elite skill for 10 seconds. Regeneration applied by you on allies (not yourself) stacks in intensity up to 3 times.
- Protector’s Boon: Aegis applied by you on other allies blocks two attacks instead of one. All wards and other barrier-based abilities last 20% longer.

Grandmaster
- Pages of Light: Cooldowns on tome abilities are reduced by 20%. Cooldown on swapping tomes reduced by 20%. Wielding a Tome grants increased stats depending on the tome in use:
Life – Cleanses three conditions from allies affected by a Tome of Life spell.
Healing – +25% outgoing healing.
Protection – +50% defensive boon (protection/regeneration/aegis/vigor/resistance) duration.
Smiting – +50% Judge’s Insight duration. +50% offensive boon (might/fury/retaliation/quickness) duration.
Arms – +25% movement speed. +30% vulnerability duration.
Courage – +25% outgoing healing to allies. +30% boon duration.
Wrath – +15% damage. +40% boon duration, +40% condition duration.
- Word of Censure: Prayers deal damage on cast. Reduce recharge on all prayers by 2 seconds for each enemy damaged by a prayer. 1200 (3.0) damage. 300 radius.
- Peace and Harmony: Protection applied by you also decreases condition duration by 25%. Whenever an ability from you cleanses conditions on an ally (not you), cleanse an additional condition from that ally. No ICD.

Thoughts?

Elite Skill:
Tome of Courage/Tome of Wrath: Summon an ancient tome which grants you powerful offensive/supportive spells. If Life Attunement is active, the skill becomes Tome of Courage. If Life Attunement is inactive, the skill becomes Tome of Wrath.
Tome of Courage:
#1: Heal Area: Base healing decreased to 1000 from 1320. Scaling increased from 0.5 to 0.8. Radius increased to 300 from 240.
#2: Purifying Ribbon: Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
#3: Protective Spirit: Cooldown increased from 15 seconds to 20 seconds. Now also applies aegis for 10 seconds.
#4: Pacifism: Cooldown increased from 20 seconds to 40 seconds.
#5: Light of Deliverance: Cooldown increased from 30 seconds to 180 seconds. Cast time decreased to 4 seconds from 4.25 seconds. Radius/range increased from 1200 to 2400. Heals for 50% of max health from 100%. Allies not affected by the 2400 radius heal are healed within a 5000 radius for 25% of their max health. Target limit is 5 for each seperate heal.

Tome of Wrath:
#1: Conflagrate: Same as before. Inflicts 2 stacks of burning.
#2: Affliction: Also slows targets for 3 seconds. Cooldown changed from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
#3: Zealot’s Blaze: Applies Zealot’s Flame to allies in a cone for 6 seconds. Also applies might (5 stacks) and swiftness for 15 seconds. Cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 20 seconds. Target limit increased to 5.
#4: Shield of Judgment: Buffs allies in the targeted area with “Shield of Judgment” which knocks down and damages attacking enemies. 4 second buff duration. 2s ICD. 1s knockdown duration. 500 (2.0) damage. 40 second cooldown.
#5: Judgment: Is now ground targeted. Cooldown increased from 30 seconds to 180 seconds. Cast time increased from 2.75 seconds to 4 seconds. 1200 range. 600 radius.

- Tome of Courage and Tome of Wrath no longer increase any stats, or grant protection, stability, or retaliation to the user.
- Utility skills and prayers are usable while Tome of Courage/Wrath is in use.
- For the purpose of effects that trigger off of elite usage, only Judgment/Light of Deliverance will trigger those effects.
- Judgment/Light of Deliverance share a cooldown.

Signet changes are made due to Light of Deliverance returning:
- Signet of Courage is replaced by Boon Signet.
Boon Signet:
Passive effect – whenever you apply a boon to an ally or yourself, grant another boon or buff to that ally based on the boon you applied.
Aegis -> Regeneration (5 seconds)
Fury -> Might (2 stacks, 10 seconds)
Might -> Fury (3 seconds)
Protection -> Regeneration (2 seconds)
Quickness -> Superspeed (5 seconds)
Regeneration -> Vigor (3 seconds)
Resistance -> Protection (3 seconds)
Retaliation -> Vigor (3 seconds)
Stability -> Protection (3 seconds)
Swiftness -> Superspeed (2 seconds)
Vigor -> Regeneration (4 seconds)

Active effect – Grant all boons to allies in the targeted area. 360 radius. 1200 range. 180s CD.
Aegis – 15s duration.
Fury – 15s duration.
Might – 15s duration (12 stacks).
Protection – 15s duration.
Quickness – 5s duration.
Regeneration – 15s duration.
Resistance – 5s duration.
Retaliation – 15s duration.
Stability – 5s duration (3 stacks).
Swiftness – 15s duration.
Vigor – 15s duration.

- Signet of Wrath is replaced by Signet of Mystic Wrath:
Signet of Mystic Wrath: Passive effect – +20% extra boon duration. Active effect – Light bursts forth beneath the target, dealing damage. Damage is increased by 20% for each boon on the user. 800 (2.0) damage. Blast finisher. 240 radius. 1200 range. 20s CD.

- Signet of Mercy now gives +15% outgoing healing instead of 180 healing power. Now creates a Symbol of Judgment instead of reviving the target instantly. Cast time decreased from 3.75 seconds to 0.75 seconds. Cooldown reduced to 70 seconds from 150. Range increased to 1200 from 900.

- Bane Signet and Signet of Judgment are unchanged.

- Perfect Inscriptions changed to Scribe’s Insight: Decrease cooldown on signets by 20%. Signet passive effects are increased by 25%. Signets restore 10% of endurance for each boon on you when activated.

Utility Skills:
Tome of Healing: Summon a mystical tome which grants you healing spells.

1. - Heal Other: Auto-attack. Heals the lowest health ally in range. Cannot target self. 700 (0.9) healing. 1200 range.
2. - Healing Ribbon: Releases two ribbons of light which target the two lowest health allies in range, healing and removing one condition from each of them. Cannot target self. 1600 (1.0) healing. 1200 range. 5s CD.
3. - Healing Light: Ground targeted AoE heal. Heal increases by 15% for each boon on target ally. 1600 (1.0) healing. 360 radius. 1200 range. 15s CD.
4. - Cure Condition: Releases a wave which cleanses 3 conditions from allies. Grants 2 seconds of regeneration per condition removed. 1200 range. 20s CD.
5. - Healing Burst: Ground targeted AoE heal. 2500 (4.0) healing. 300 radius. 1200 range. 60s CD.

Tome of Protection: Summon a mystical tome which grants you protection spells.

1. - Shield of Regeneration: Cone AoE Auto-attack. Grants a short duration of regeneration and protection per cast. 2s regeneration duration. 2s protection duration. 1200 range.
2. - Life Sheath: Ground targeted AoE buff. Allies affected gain a life sheath barrier which converts the next attack’s damage into healing, allies in the radius are also cleansed of one condition. Instant cast. 3s buff duration. 240 radius. 1200 range. 5s CD.
3. - Shield of Deflection: Creates a barrier which blocks all projectiles and protects allies within from AoE fields. Grants aegis once on placement. 5s barrier duration. 5s aegis duration. 300 radius. 1200 range. Light field. 25s CD.
4. - Restore Condition: Removes all conditions from allies in the area. Heals for each condition removed. 100 (0.3) healing per condition cleansed. 2.5s casting time (roots while casting). 1200 range. 40s CD.
5. - Life Barrier: Ground targeted AoE. Grants the “Life Barrier” buff which prevents allies from being downed once while active, consuming the buff and returning them to 50% health. Also decreases damage on allies by 20% while active. Cannot affect self. Instant cast. 8s duration. 240 radius. 1200 range. 60s CD.

Tome of Smiting: Summon a mystical tome which grants you smiting spells.

1. - Ray of Justice: Auto-attack. Releases a bouncing ray of light that grants might (3 stacks) to allies, and damages and inflicts vulnerability (2 stacks) to enemies. 150 (0.8) damage. 12s might duration. 12s vulnerability duration. 4 bounces. 750 bounce range. 1200 range.
2. - Reversal of Damage: Ground targeted AoE buff. Allies affected gain a Reversal of Damage barrier which blocks and returns the next attack’s damage back against the attacker, and also returns any conditions from that attack back to the attacker. Instant cast. 3s buff duration. 240 radius. 1200 range. 5s CD.
3. - Judge’s Insight: Ground targeted AoE. Grants fury and the “Judge’s Insight” buff which causes allies affected to ignore 33% of enemy armor. 6s Judge’s Insight duration. 10s fury duration. 300 radius. 1200 range. 20s CD.
4. - Retribution: Imbues the targeted area with smiting magic, granting 2 seconds of retaliation to allies each pulse. 5 seconds later, the area explodes into beams of light which home onto enemies, dealing 50% of the damage dealt to allies who were in the area of Retribution. 300 radius. 1200 range. Light field. 30s CD.
5. - Ray of Judgement: Ground targeted AoE. Invokes a large beam of light at the targeted location for 5 seconds, dealing damage and applying burning (3 stacks) each pulse in the area. 6 pulses. 3s channel. 1800 (5.0) damage per pulse. 3s burning per pulse. 360 radius. 1200 range. 60s CD. (Focus #4 gets renamed)

Tome of Arms: Summon a mystical tome which grants you weapon-based spells.

1. - Burst of Blades: Auto-attack. Unleashes a burst of weaponry out from the tome. Inflicts 3 stacks of vulnerability. 100 (0.9) damage. 10s vulnerability duration. 300 range.
2. - Heavenly Spear: A spear of light falls from the sky onto target area, dealing damage, inflicting vulnerability (5 stacks), and crippling enemies. 2s cripple. 10s vulnerability. 200 (2.0) damage. 900 range. 240 radius. 5s CD.
3. - Circle of Blades: Dash in the targeted direction while surrounded by rotating blades of light. Block projectiles for 1 second while dashing. 200 (0.4) damage. 5 impacts. 600 range. Whirl finisher. 15s CD.
4. - Chains of Justice: Unleashes chains that damage and slow enemies. For each foe chained, gain might for each second the chains are active. Can be activated again to knockback enemies. 100 (0.8) damage. 10s might duration. 1s slow duration. 3s chain duration. 4 pulses. 600 range. 25s CD.
5. - Sword of Light: Creates a gigantic sword of light which slashes down vertically onto the targeted area, dealing significant damage to enemies. Extra damage from vulnerability is tripled for this ability. 1.25 second channel. 1200 (3.0) damage. 600 range. 35s CD.

My thoughts and ideas on what the supposed future tome elite specialization could/should be like.

The Monk specialization allows guardians to specialize purely into support. Through its tomes and traits, it allows one to specifically focus in each aspect of support. Unlike the base guardian profession, monks are a backline support specialization. Little of the power of their supportive abilities is directed towards themselves, instead that power is focused on allies.
Each of the Monk’s tomes are intended to represent each of the original Monk’s prayer types, as well as the playstyles that came with them.

Profession Mechanic:
Virtues become “Prayers”, and “Life Attunement” is gained. Prayers have weaker versions of virtue passive effects.

Life attunement: Toggleable ability. Prayer. Attune to life, grants +15% outgoing healing to allies and increases boon duration when applying boons to allies (not the user) by 15%, but decreases outgoing damage by 30%. 13s CD (cannot be toggled off until cooldown refreshes). Blue-yellow runes of light circle around the user’s hands as a graphical indication that Life Attunement is active.

Aura of Smiting: Prayer. Ground targeted AoE buff. Allies affected deal 50% more damage with their next three abilities. Instant cast. 1200 range. 300 radius. 40s CD.

Word of Healing: Prayer. Ground targeted AoE. Heals allies in the targeted area. Healing doubles on allies below 50% health. 1600 (1.0) healing. Instant cast. 1200 range. 300 radius. 40s CD.

Mark of Protection: Prayer. Ground targeted AoE. Creates a field which lasts for 3 seconds which applies aegis (4 pulses). 10s aegis duration. Instant cast. 1200 range. 300 radius. 40s CD. [Indomitable Courage only procs once on placement]

Armor type:
Monks can choose between light armor or heavy armor. Wearing light armor grants a “light armor” buff which decreases the cooldown of prayers by 25% and increases Life Attunement’s outgoing healing and outgoing boon duration to allies each by 15%.

Abilities:
Weapon: Trident (or Shortbow if terrestial underwater weapons can’t be a thing)

1. - Light of Purity: Auto-attack. Releases a homing light projectile which bounces between allies and enemies, removing one condition from allies and damaging enemies. 150 (0.5) damage. 2 bounces. 1200 range. 600 bounce range.
2. - Ethereal Light: Channel healing to the targeted area. Move 30% slower while channeling. Taking more than 20% of your max health in damage over the duration of the channel interrupts the ability. Can be channeled for up to 10 seconds (cooldown starts on cast). 600 (+1.0) healing every second. 420 radius. 1200 range. 1500 tether range. 10s CD.
3. - Symbol of Hope: Imbue a mystic symbol into the targeted area, damaging foes and granting resistance to allies each pulse. 1s resistance duration. 3s symbol duration (4 pulses). 1200 range. Light field. 17s CD.
4. - Infuse: Channel fury to allies in the targeted area (roots while channeling). Heal allies and cleanse two conditions when the skill is successfully completed. 1000 (1.7) healing. 1200 range. 3s fury per pulse (4 pulses). 360 radius. 20s CD.
5. - Life Ward: Ward. Creates a barrier which converts incoming projectiles to healing for everyone in the barrier. When Life Ward ends, it heals allies in its radius. 1500 (+1.5) healing on end. 600 (0.7) healing per projectile. 7s duration. 360 radius. 1200 range. Light field. 40s CD.

New skill type – Tomes: All tomes have a 9 second swapping cooldown (including elite tomes).
Heal Skill:
Tome of Life: Summon a mystical tome which can cast a variety of heal skills.

1. - Live Vicariously: Buffs allies in range with “Live Vicariously”. During its duration, whenever an ally hits a foe, you are healed. 800 (+0.8) healing per hit. 1200 radius. 8s duration. 1s ICD. Places Tome of Life on a 30s CD.
2. - Healing Ring: Create a ring of light that heals allies. Does not affect the user. 5000 (+3.0) healing. 900 radius. Places Tome of Life on a 30s CD.
3. - Renew Life: Revive an ally in the targeted area, heal all allies near the targeted area upon successful cast. 2600 (1.0) healing. 2.5 second cast time. 360 radius. 1200 range. Places Tome of Life on a 90s CD.

Personally I wouldn’t ever use the staff as a Ventari-focused revenant, at least not as one that has a high % outgoing healing stat, because I wouldn’t want to be in close-range with no stability, stunbreak, mobility, or powerful self-healing. As others have stated, the staff seems much more suited to Jallis.
Personally, I’ll be using a hammer with a Ventari revenant. Primarily for the spammable light projectile combo between Hammer Bolt and Protective Solace, but I would imagine that the barrier and the CC that Hammer #5 offers would be quite useful as well. No idea what I’d use for the second weapon, maybe Glint’s shield.

Anyone know if it’s going to be properly optimized? If it’s anything like SW, that’ll be quite unfortunate.

I’m curious as well. Doesn’t seem like the devs have the intention to include a unique stat for them though, although I would personally enjoy having something like an energy regen stat.

Eh, monks should just be the tome elite specialization for guardians instead. :>

Saiyan.1704:

What Guards Really need as a buff? Allow us to teleport anywhere with Merciful Intervention. If no Ally present, reduce the teleport range by half and we receive no base heal effect. If an Ally is present, we receive the base heal effect. This way, Mesmers don’t need much of a nerf and we’ll complain less about Celestial Eles because we’ll Maybe be able to outplay them by not getting kited as bad.

Sounds clunky, besides the point of MI, and rather similar to Wings of Resolve.

I doubt most people here have played a healing guardian enough to even get a mild understanding of it.

x indigo x.6981:

The signet of courage still needs buffing on the passive side both in the amount of heal and in the range of it. However, battle presence is at a healthy spot. Not much bugging is needed on it. They actually buffed it by making purity of body a minor for free when it used to be a gm trait.

I think I can confidently say Battle Presence is kind of worthless right now. The change that caused it to only be in effect while VoR is up doesn’t even make it worth an adept trait for me.

x indigo x.6981:

I feel the support role of the rev will revolve heavily around healing from a distance. Would love to see long range aoe condi clear added to it or more aoe boons application as o felt it was lacking in that area.

It has Purifying Essence and Protective Solace’s Light Field+Hammer Bolt. I’d argue that it has some of the best long ranged condition cleansing in the game. :>

x indigo x.6981:

Rev vs guard healing :
Guard: frontline healer. Healing aoe around the guard himself.
Rev : midline healer. Healing aoe from a distance . Requires tablet management.

Healer guardians have always seemed more like a mid line thing to me, although I suppose that depends on whether you take shouts or consecrations.

Vizardlorde.8243:

The only 2 classes that can heal decently are engi and ele and not because they have awesome healing spells but because they have water fields and several blast finishers. Healing spells in this game are noticeably weak.

Maybe in WvW zergs where people randomly blow blast finishers constantly. Any other situation and a guardian will easily outheal them.

The banner and other such revive skills work precisely because their cast times are so low.

I think the passive is pretty lackluster too, in my opinion. If it gave out % outgoing healing over base healing power, I’d definitely consider it.

Mightymealworm.8409:

They should just change it to drop a symbol of judgement with a 3/4 sec cast time and reduce recharge a touch. Boom, viable.

That’s a pretty good idea actually. It’d have synergy with symbol builds as well as support builds.

In PvP and WvW, I wouldn’t touch the staff as a Ventari revenant; I see no reason to use it when playing as a fairly squishy healer with so much % outgoing healing and no self-heal. The hammer seems like a far better choice to me since it allows the user to stay at long-range, and its projectile finisher auto-attack shot through Protective Solace’s light field is an easy source of cleansing spam.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

BTW anyone else think they should add more gear types with boon/condi duration seeing as how you can’t get it from traits anymore?

I think so too. Although, I’d like gear with even more “special” stats like profession mechanic recharge rate, % outgoing healing to allies, revive speed, etc in addition to boon duration and condition duration.

The ability to place Wall of Reflection on one’s allies is invaluable; running all the way to someone who is taking a lot of projectile damage and then casting it simply isn’t practical. Casting Sanctuary on a downed ally or enemy from range is also pretty valuable since it has a long cast time and is fairly easily interrupted.

Saw that coming. :p

Vizardlorde.8243:

Burning builds are a thing because you can stack 15+ stacks with permeating wrath and supreme justice which your AMAZING TOME negates.

Permeating Wrath doesn’t increase the total number of stacks you would apply, and Supreme Justice only contributes a small amount but only to sustained burning rather than burst burning like you’re implying. Unsurprisingly, I’m pretty sure most burning builds use Absolute Resolution and Indomitable Courage instead.

Vizardlorde.8243:

And that logic does apply because lich form’s strongest skill is the auto attack by now its a running gag that power necro’s only need to press #1 to win because all of their high damage skills like LB and dagger are on AA. Every transformation elite has a strength and lich form’s is Burst damage no other transformation elite can come close to it except maybe rampage and that’s still lower cause its cc focused. Tome of wrath was more buffing oriented than dealing actual damage.

Tome of Wrath’s most powerful skills (outside of PvE) were probably Conflagrate and Judgment. Zealot’s Fervor was also good, but I wouldn’t say it was the focus of the tome. I usually just used it to decrease the cast time on Judgment or speed up Conflagrate spam.
If buffing was really the focus of the tome, I would’ve imagined Smiter’s Boon to grant a lot more stacks of might and the duration of Zealot’s Fervor to last longer. I would say buffing was only a part of what it was supposed to do. I don’t think it was intended to be its primary strength either, since it’s “ultimate” ability (Judgment) was a huge AoE CC nuke.

So is Rampage’s “strength” gaining ridiculous mobility/damage/tankiness/control/immunity to CC (ie. auto-winning) every fight where its used?

A Ventari revenant has some pretty good support, but they should stay at a long range (especially those who pick the % outgoing healing traits) because once they’re targeted they can’t do much to defend themselves (no stunbreak, no defensive cc, no self-heal, weak healing on self, low mobility). This would appear to make the staff a bad pairing with revenants who focus on the ventari legend, not that I’m surprised it turned out this way.
Ironically, the hammer is likely better on Ventari revenants, and the staff is likely better on Jallis revenants.

Manimarco Devil.1790:

Boons are important since they can proactively deal with damage while heals are only reactive.

Jallis applies a fair amount of boons/buffs, and Ventari has that barrier as well, so I’m not sure if you can really say that. I’m not sure if their support is better than a guardian’s, but I just thought I should point that out.

CMF.5461:

Then you realize that the old tomes could be traited to innately provide stability AND increased your stats to provide you with “transformed” health

Don’t forget the 1200 range AoE daze that Tome of Courage also offered to help you pull off LoD.

CMF.5461:

I did use Tome of Courage extensively for large group WvW group fights, because being able to maintain a high degree of healing via Heal Area was effective and could push the tide of the war, especially with multiple guardians. NOT because of the full heal which rooted me and was more risk than reward.

To be completely honest, Heal Area was probably the main reason I loved Tome of Courage so much (although I loved all of it). I would’ve been somewhat okay with Heal Area as a low cooldown consecration elite.
I only ever used Light of Deliverance if I really knew someone was going to get hit hard in the next few seconds.

Vizardlorde.8243:

How many times did you 2 shot someone with conflagrate before?

What’s your point? You said a 0 second cooldown skill would never get 3 stacks of burning, and I said that that kind of logic shouldn’t apply to elite skills, and for the most part, that kind of logic really doesn’t apply to elite skills.
If you’re trying to imply that burning wasn’t that great before, and it still won’t be on the tome, well that simply isn’t true. There’s a reason guardian burning builds are kind of a thing right now.

Genesis.8572:

Maybe the med kit should be redesigned to be more of a gun that drops marks with condi removal, boons, and some healing. Actually, it would be like the defensive/support version of the necro’s staff, but with the skill 1 being a basic attack with a heal effect.

Bongrimm.8439:

Possible example:
In contrast to the MedKit now only skill 1 &2 have healing but in return skills 2-4 get a 2nd boon and skill 5 removes an additional condition.
Skill 1: MedBlaster – light-blue coloured spray, causes little to medium direct-healing (more than it is now), no cooldown,
Skill 2: RegBlaster – dark-blue colour, causes higher direct-healing, applies regeneration, 10-15 sec. cooldown (depending on balancing the strength of the healing),
Skill 3: StimBlaster – light-yellow colour, applies fury & might, removes a debilitating condition (weakness, blind, vulnerability), 10 sec. cooldown
Skill 4: SpeedBlaster – light-red colour, applies swiftness & stability, removes a movement-impairing condition (immobilize, chill, cripple), 10 sec. cooldown
Skill 5: DetoxBlaster – light-green colour, cures 2 conditions (any type), and applies resistance), 20 sec. cooldown

As you both imply, I think a big problem with these skills are the medium in which they’re applied. Individually dropping healing/cleansing packets for you or your allies to pick up isn’t really practical, but if those abilities were altered to instead do what they do on a cone/mark/etc, they’d probably be quite a bit better. Of course they still need to be buffed numbers-wise as well.

Med Blaster should heal for a ton considering the limitations it has. Requiring boons, and not self-healing (and low range to go with that, bad combination) are pretty big limitations in my opinion.

Vizardlorde.8243:

an attack with no cooldown would never get more than 2 stacks per use

Kind of like how you wouldn’t expect an auto-attack to be able to two-shot you (Lich Form)? Anything goes with elites, and an auto-attack which inflicts three stacks of burning is definitely not out of the question. Even with two stacks I wouldn’t say that’s weak either.
As you can see from CMF’s calculations, Tome of Wrath likely would’ve finally been great. With burning duration it would’ve been able to inflict three seconds of burning (for up to 9 stacks) as well.

Vizardlorde.8243:

The only advantage it had over a weapon AA was the 5 target cap instead of 3 cause you could get longer burns through VoJ.

Difference between those auto-attacks and conflagrate is that conflagrate is a 1200 range AoE. While mindless PvE trash mobs might take those weapon auto-attacks, players in PvP or WvW won’t just sit there in a bundle and take it. Conflagrate wasn’t exactly easy to avoid considering that it just popped up out of nowhere.

Vizardlorde.8243:

Yes I would totally love 2 stacks of burn for 2 secs while locking myself out of everything else >.> WW can give more stacks with VoJ thats how great the tome was.

You don’t know how many stacks of burning it would’ve caused. Although conflagrate never did bad damage in the first place.

If the tomes were given a few buffs or were even just left alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d be to guardians what Rampage is to warriors right now (another skill that nobody used before).

Looks like this trait got 25/90’d. :p

I’m inclined to agree with Kotte for the most part. I’m finding the shield to be quite useful (as a support) in PvP.

Greymarch.3291:

You couldn’t do the same with #5 on tome of courage so I dont know why you’re complaining. Its an Ok signet I prefer it more so than the tome.

The difference is that Tome of Courage (with the trait, which would’ve been baseline) provided everything you needed to pull off Light of Deliverance (in addition to its unrivaled allied healing and cleansing). When using Signet of Courage, you don’t have perma-protection, you don’t have boosted vitality/toughness, and you’ll often end up using at least one virtue and/or one utility to pull it off, and if you don’t then you’ll likely be dead.

It’s a very powerful supportive heal, and it synergizes very well with %outgoing healing. It’s a shame that it was made into a shout since Force of Will competes with Superior Aria for the same slot.

I think a staff elementalist with no healing power can dish out more healing just with their water auto-attack (which also affects them) than a med kit engi with full healing power and %outgoing healing.

Honestly, I’m shocked that the values haven’t changed this patch. Anet must have actually intended it to be this worthless.

I like the idea, but I just don’t understand how it could be balanced that badly (especially med blaster). It almost makes me think like it’s glitched or they forgot to give it proper values before the patch went live.

Talyn.3295:

Its a good change.

Don’t say that as if it was objective. It was a good change for people too short-sighted to see the use and appeal of tomes; even then I think everyone can agree that Signet of Courage isn’t very good. Either way, with the tome elite trait becoming baseline, the new Force of Will, and the changes to burning, I’d imagine tomes would’ve been pretty good right about now.

Deleted unfortunately. Simplified/watered-down versions exist as Feel My Wrath and Signet of Courage, although one of the ANet devs said that they’d like to bring tomes back in a future elite specialization. When, or whether or not that actually happens is unknown. Personally I wouldn’t expect much; ANet has disappointed me enough.

Softspoken.2410:

The tomes were largely converted into the two new elite skills.
Tome of Wrath became Feel My Wrath while Tome of Courage became Signet of Courage . Both skills lost their AoE control elements, but give much better access to the other major skill people tended to use them for.

Feel My Wrath is great in PvE and decent in PvP, but Signet of Courage is basically just a terrible version of Tome of Courage.

Its cooldown could always be split between PvE and PvP, not that I expect ANet to think things through enough to come to that conclusion.

Purple Miku.7032:

But additionally, Permeating Wrath is still useless for the build here because nothing is around me. I mean, it’s the only relevant trait to pick but whatever. You would think that a GM trait would be one of the more build-defining traits to pick but I’m finding out that most of them are all junk compared to before the update.

Permeating Wrath triggers around your target now (despite what the build maker says).

If the shield gets anything it should be aegis or resistance. Taunting doesn’t actually have anything to do with protection, not directly at least (which is more of the flavour of the shield).

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

We have outfits for the lazy … The fact all thse outfits are just “polished gw1 skins now” doesn’t make it better…

Daydreamer’s Finery and the Mad Scientist’s outfit are GW1 skins? Don’t blow things out of proportion. Not that there’s anything wrong with making references to or using GW1 armor skins (in fact I enjoy it).

Many.8419:

Look! Another armor skin butchered to the outfit level.

Considering that guardians would probably be wearing this most of the time, and that this would be classified as “light armor”, why would this make sense as an armor skin?

Belzebu.3912:

Yes, devs said that with that new system they can easily add new elite specializations in the future.

Not that I’m doubting you, but do you have the source for that?

I don’t just want the outfit, I want the whole package. ._.

I’ve been using it in PvP and I actually don’t think it’s that bad, although if anything changed on it, I don’t think #4 should get a taunt (aegis seems much more fitting).

Jephiroth.3197:

I guess on the bright side, we can look forward to the Tome Elite Specialization in a few years?

Lel, if even.

Basandra Skye.4031:

Fashion Mage.3712:

The mortar kit’s Mortar Shot (#1) doesn’t cleanse conditions when shot through a light field. I’m not sure if it functions with other field projectile finishers.

Proj finishers must travel through or impact something. Since mortar’s a ground explosion, you’d need it to travel THROUGH the target/ally, then hit the ground.

Unless I’m misunderstanding something, projectile finishers usually manifest their effect in an AoE around the target when you successfully hit with the combo projectile. In PvP I had an enemy player stand next to an allied player and then I hit the enemy player (who was standing next to the allied player) with the combo projectile and nothing happened.

If it does need to travel through a player, does it need to travel through the ally or the enemy in order to proc the effect? Does it work the same way for offensive fields and defensive fields (water/light)?

Bog.5893:

Fashion Mage.3712:

Can anyone get its auto-attack to cleanse when fired through light fields?

Ele earth staff1

Edit, misread.

The “cleanse condition” is an aoe around the target you hit. You need to hit something and be close to it to get cleanse.

I know, but I was testing it on allies (by hitting an enemy next to them) and it didn’t seem to cleanse. I didn’t test it on myself, although I’m much more interested in the supportive potential of it.

MelGT.8326:

It hasn’t changed, it was always affected by Meditation traits, because it’s been a Meditation skill since it came into the game. The only extra it got was from Smiter’s Boon (cast Smite Condition when you use a heal skill) which certainly added to it, but it’s always had the extra heal, Fury and CD reduction when traited.

Nope, I’m 90% sure that its cast time was reduced (I’m sure that’s what OP meant by “CD”).

Edit:

Litany of Wrath: Reduced the casting time of this ability from 0.75 seconds to 0.25 seconds.

Can anyone get its auto-attack to cleanse when fired through light fields?

As for the damage nerf, it’s kind of ridiculous. It wasn’t needed at all. Although, I don’t think it should lose the spammable projectile finisher as it makes it a very unique weapon when combined with the weapon’s various fields.

The mortar kit’s Mortar Shot (#1) doesn’t cleanse conditions when shot through a light field. I’m not sure if it functions with other field projectile finishers.

DroidDreamer.2861:

The cooldown seems too long. Think of what we are losing:

—Spammable 2k heals (Tome 1)
—AoE Blind/ GroupCondi-clear (Tome 2)
—10 seconds of Protection and Regen for allies (Tome 3)
—A pretty significant long-range Interrupt and Daze (Tome 4)
—A stylish and romantic book casting animation

What we keep is the same long-casting full party heal that everyone loves but on a very long cooldown. But we’ve also lost the trait that gives Stability while using the Tome so pulling off the long-cast heal is harder.

and there’s no more vitality/toughness increase and protection for a minute too. The signet itself seems pretty bad to me. Unlike Tome of Courage, casting the active just makes you too vulnerable (especially with the ridiculous DPS in the game now). The passive is okay-ish with high healing power, but is otherwise also garbage. People got what they wanted and trashed a unique ability type as a result, but unsurprisingly, RF will probably be used more anyway.

Consecrations being ground targeted makes them ideal for supporting allies. The small increase of skill required to use them while ground targeted isn’t really a big deal to me.

LetoII.3782:

Well, look at what we as an aggregate community have asked for. We wanted DPS, Conditions and a Bow.. Got all three, yay.
So, now we can be a Warrior that can’t Nike. A Condispammer with less effectiveness than others (Ranger, Engi). And coming soon, A wannabe power ranger…

All the while our core functionality, group buffer, has languished. We’ve asked to become a mess and Anet has granted our wish.

I wanted a supportive longbow personally, not a ranger wannabe bow. I’m sure others were hoping for the same. I agree with your other points though.